The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-06-05
HOAESROR STUDENTGIRLS
MANAGED BY PHILAHTHROPIsTS
WITH RIGID RULES.
Poor Food, Badly Ventilated Apart.
ments abd RIgidly Rightous Ma
trons-The Jews House.

women, and the greater number O
them are from out OF town.
The Academy of Design numbers
nearly 200 students. Of these one
half are women, of whom the greater
number are from out Of town.
In the schools of the Cooper Unio1
there are 300 women, and Of these
one-half are from out of town.
There are no means OF knowing
the number of women from every
State in the Union that are crowdinl
into the Conservatives of music and
the schools of elocution and Ian
guages; that are in private AR
schools; in the schools of telegraphy
stenography and typewritiDg. Those
schools are numberless. But every
where they are crowded, and the
conclusion is that the number Of
women in the city seeking instruc-
ton rises into thousands.
These young women-for the
greater number are young, both in
years and experience-must live
somewhere, and that on little money,
for the presumption is that, prepar-
ing themselves for self support, they
have but slender resources. BY far
the larger part are Obliged to prac-
tloe strict economies. Their instruc-
ton and the equipment for their in
struction makes constant quantity.
Their economies, in consequence,
must be restricted to their dress and
their manner Of living, and it is the
latter consideration that is the most
serious.
This has long been recognized.
Young girls who come as strangers
to this city need not only a place
where they can board for a moderate
price, but they need certain protec-
ton, unused as they are to the ways
OF a city.
THE HOMES" OFFERED THEM.
The best known of the houses that
have been established for this purpose
is No. q North Washington square.
This house and the branch house on
the corner of Eighteenth street and
Second avenue are under the protec-
ton of the Woman's Christian
Union-an organization set on foot
by the first Mrs. Marshall o.
Roberts.
The Washington square establish
ment consists of two of those fine
old houses which dignity the square,
and accommodates eighty boarders.
This is now filled to OVERLOOKING.
The conditions of entering are
first, that the applicant must be a
Protestant, and next, that she must
have credentials as to her good
character.
At these houses the girls can get
rooms and board for 50 or s. week.
There is little to be said about the
furniture. Two chums occupy each
of the large front rooms and pay s.
a week apiece. There are we'll
heated, bright parlors, with patient
piano, and in them every day and
evening the boarders entertain their
callers. Young men, though, are
rigidly prohibited on Sundays; the
Sabbath must be kept holy.
Here the girls breakfast at 7
o'clock. lunch at 1, and dine at 6, on
plain fare. well served. At 10
o'clock the house is closed, and
lights out" is at 1870 o'clock.
ATTEND concerts, lectures and re-
ligious meetings as you wish" is the
simple advice, but the theaters and
latchkeys are tabooed.
The branch house on Second ave-
nue. is more literally conducted.
The theater is not such burden of
reproach, and the latchkey is not
thought a device of the devil.
Otherwise the management il the
same.
At No. 120 Second avenue is a
Baptist Home for Women Students.
More attractive environment is pre-
scented here, and the reins of govern
ment are more leniently,held. Here
the board is from 81 to $50 a week,
the girls, of course, rooming to-
gether.
The newly opened Primrose House,
under Hebrew MANAGEMENT, is far
the most attractive of these homes.
The rooms are bright and neatly
furnished, and in some three girls
are lodged. Its aims are much more
wide reaching. 1t is non-sectarian,
and receives any girl who can give a
suitable account of herself. If she
can pay her board she does so, if not
she is kept until she can, and an eff
fort is made to put her in position
of self help. The price of board
ranges from 81 to So week, depend
emit not ON the room, but the depth
of the girl's pocket. A we'll selected
library is open to their use, and many
classes, too, in which the girls are
taught dressmaking, as we'll as
branches of study.
All these houses are crowded. In
one girl was paying 81 for land
ing screened by a curtain.
BUT THE GIRLS DON'T LIKE THEM.
A young girl who came to the city
to study was searching for a board
ing place. Her eyes were opened to
many new facts and ideas that were
strange to her. In these homes she
found great dissatisfaction among the
girls chatting over the restrictions,
allowing for the dissatisfaction at
their surroundings that people gen.
orally indulge in.
The air of one house she visited
she found forbiddipg; the restric-
tions were odious. The natural de-
sire OF young women for recreation
is frowned upon, unless that recrea-
ton falls within the meaning of the
word as interpreted by the matron.
"0f course you allow them to 60
out in the eveningsW
"They have no business to be run
ming about evenings. OF course
they can go to lectures and meet
ings."
"But those are scarcely recrea-
ton"
"They ought to be. Plenty of peo-
pie enjoy them. | don't object COCA
sionally to concert.
Nor to the theater2"
They have no business to tempt
II